On 04/13/2007 10:37 AM, Marko Nurmenniemi wrote:
> johnny wrote:
>>> Chad wrote:
>>>>>> Is it true that guy behind this is Mr Christer Åkers, who also own company
>>>> Edge Innovations (http://www.edgeinnovations.fi/)...
>> Yes its true.
>>>> This is good news to me, the more interested people we have the better
> chance to get improvements to source.
>>>> ...If your intent is to
>>> "bring to light" the fact that this feature makes it so a company is
>>> potentially benefiting from this...
>>>>> This to me is the power of Linux (...GPL) as long as the code still GPL
> also after the "commercial" implementation this is excellent.
>> I have 100% better feeling when I'm supporting other Myth users (with my
> 25€) than buying the latest from "Windows/closed source" and this is
> what is happening. I'm NOT handing out money to the mentioned company,
> this is a improvement I'm investing and they have promised to deliver.
> The community will benefit more than any single company from this.
>> Buying closed source SW-products is like burning money in comparison.
I think what people are saying is that since OSP says, "We need to
collect 6000 Euro for this feature. ... We would like to see that as
many mythtv users as possible can contribute 25 Euro or more... We,
Open Source Partners Ltd have contributed 500Euro as start capital. ...
We are intending to contribute the missing amount when the collected
money is above a certain amount."
So, OSP is willing to contribute some amount up to 6000 Euro (less,
actually, but there is some "missing amount" they've chosen as an
acceptable maximum contribution). However, if 220 users donate 25 Euro
each, OSP is only donates the minimum they've promised (500 Euro).
IMHO, a much better thing to do would be to say, "We /are/ donating 3000
Euro (or whatever). We /need/ 120 users to donate 25 Euro each to reach
a minimum of 6000 Euro. If more than 120 users donate 25 Euro, the
developers will get 100% of the extra money."
Since every donation potentially reduces OSP's share of the bill (the
"missing amount" they are willing to contribute), those donations are
basically going into OSP's pockets--and not into Daniel's, Janne's, and
Shane's.
How is that any different from "buying closed source SW-products"? In
both cases the money is pocketed by a company. In this case, however,
the company pocketing the money isn't even doing the work to create the
new feature--in the closed-source case, that company has to do some work.
Mike